New science facility unveiled at Southeastern University

By Sara DrummThe Ledger

Thursday

Aug 13, 2015 at 6:53 PM

Southeastern University students can now develop cultures from bacteria in a microbiology lab, treat fake patients with realistic symptoms in the nursing simulation lab, and do marathon calculus problems on floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall white boards.

LAKELAND — Southeastern University students can now develop cultures from bacteria in a microbiology lab, treat fake patients with realistic symptoms in the nursing simulation lab, and do marathon calculus problems on floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall white boards.

All that is enclosed in the university's newest building, the College of Natural and Health Sciences.

“All of what you see around you was just a dream just a short few years ago — and in fact, a year ago was just an unsightly cement foundation,” Kent Ingle, the university's president, told a group of community partners and invited guests Thursday evening. “It is only the beginning of what is happening.”

The 28,000-square-foot, $6 million building will welcome its first students when the fall semester begins Wednesday. It will officially open to the public the next day with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m.

The building is opening a year later than originally expected because of delays in the construction process, but university officials are convinced it was worth the wait.

“Before, we've had students who went elsewhere because of our lack of facilities,” said Debbie Hazelbaker, the college's dean. “Now I think we'll attract them.”

Students will find an attractive building characterized inside by exposed air ducts and electrical wiring, as well as a 144-seat auditorium, a nursing simulation lab, classrooms, two computer labs and several science labs, including a microbiology lab, organic and biochemistry labs, and an anatomy and physiology lab.

The nursing simulation lab includes several realistic patient simulators that blink, have heartbeats and breathe. Students can hook up IVs, take their blood pressure, listen to their heart and lungs.

Lucy Stella, the simulation lab manager, can remove limbs and create injuries such as severe burns. And she can manipulate vital signs and heart and lung functioning to create different medical scenarios.

“This is my dream come true,” Stella said.

Students sign contracts pledging to act as if they are in real-life situations while in the lab.

College leaders see ways to grow into the new building.

Professor Aimee Franklin, who teaches anatomy and physiology, wants to lead students in research using brain tissue from mice with prevalent medical conditions, such as depression.

Franklin received her bachelor's degree from Southeastern in 2007 and has since earned a doctorate from the University of Alabama. She is known for her research on the mechanisms underlying Fragile X Syndrome, a genetic condition that causes learning and memory problems.

Franklin has an arrangement with UAB to receive brain tissue from mice — but first, the college needs to raise funds for the equipment to do research on the tissue, which could cost up to $1 million.

What the college already offers impressed the visitors.

“I walked into Southeastern, but it looks like I walked into Stanford,” said Judy Hackett, a nurse and wife of the university's provost, Bill Hackett.

And the building might be briefly mistaken for a museum.

After the building's official opening, the university will invite the public to visit its most ancient inhabitant: Suzie, the 14-foot-tall mastodon on loan to SEU from the South Florida Science Museum and Aquarium at West Palm Beach.

“We're hoping to use Suzie as a tool to open up our doors to the community, to schools and to schoolchildren to have them come by so we can explain about creation and science, and that there is no distinction between the two,” Hazelbaker said.

[ Sara Drumm can be reached at sara.drumm@theledger.com or 863-802-7547. Follow her on Twitter @saradrumm. ]

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